Search intensifies for 23 missing in Italian avalanche

The maintenance worker at the luxury Hotel Rigopiano who escaped being buried under the deadly avalanche because he had gone to check the boiler told Italian media Saturday that he called for hours to find survivors, but no one responded. The scene, he said, "felt like it was a dream. It was a nightmare."

One of the people buried inside, and among the 23 still missing, is his sister. His voice shaking, he said he last saw her in the kitchen.

Rescuers work in the area of the avalanche-hit Rigopiano hotel, central Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico/The National Alpine Cliff and Cave Rescue Corps (CNSAS) via AP)

Five people have been confirmed killed, including two hotel waiters, while nine, including four children who had been on family vacations, have been pulled alive from the reinforced concrete structure buried beneath as many as eight meters of snow last Wednesday.

Doctors at the hospital in Pescara said one of the adults underwent surgery for a crushed arm, and was in fair condition, but that all of the other patients were doing well. The children were being moved from intensive care to the pediatric ward.

Buoyed by the rescues on Friday, more than two days after the disaster, search crews were intensifying their round-the-clock operation, fighting against the clock and deteriorating weather conditions including fresh snowfall and freezing temperatures.

"The research is difficult also because the site is in a precarious equilibrium, that's why the interventions are made very carefully and why we cannot intervene with big machineries risking to modify a very vulnerable situation," said Titti Postiglione of Italy's civil protection agency.

Instead, workers pushed ahead using saws, shovels and gloved hands, listening for any sounds that might suggest more survivors.

Dozens of friends and family members kept vigil at the hospital, some growing frustrated at the lack of news.

In one family, elation that 9-year-old Edoardo Di Carlo had survived in good condition was tempered by news that his mother, Nadia Aconcciamessa, a nurse in the nearby town of Penne, was among the dead. The toll also includes two waiters at the hotel, Gabriele di Angelo and Alessandro Giancaterino.

Postiglioni said the high number of people still missing was giving impetus to the search. They include Di Carlo's father and the parents of 6-year-old Samuel Di Michelangelo.

The search included sending sound-sensitive instruments down into snow-crusted debris. Rescuers passed crates full of chunks of hardened snow and ice to colleagues as they tried to penetrate deeper into the wreckage, creating the rough equivalent of elevator shafts to allow searchers to descend into the smashed hotel.

Searchers also used devices that could pick up any electronic waves emitted by cell phones of the missing, said Walter Milan, a spokesman for the alpine rescuers.

That voices haven't been heard lately doesn't mean no one is still alive, he said, explaining "we know that thick walls and snow isolates" possible voices.

Because of the continued avalanche risk, escape routes were planned for rescue crews and each participant was equipped with a tracking device in case they were buried under the snow.

Snowfall higher than 3 meters (10 feet) thwarted the arrival of heavy equipment like cranes, said rescue spokesman Marco Bini, leaving the searchers to often rely on their hands or simple snow shovels to make progress.

Salzetta has been spending time at the hotel rescue operation advising crews on the hotel's layout and guests' possible locations.

Talking to reporters as he left the area, he recalled that the guests had gathered to go home, some shaken by the four quakes that day, but their departure was stymied by heavy snowfall that had made the road out impassable.

"In the end, they were calm. No one imagined that something like this could happen, after all the earthquakes that there have been," Salzetta said.

The last thing he remembers of that night: "The snow. Everything snow."

Rescuers work in the area of the avalanche-hit Rigopiano hotel, central Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico/The National Alpine Cliff and Cave Rescue Corps (CNSAS) via AP)

One of the three children that were rescued from the avalanche-hit Rigopiano Hotel is transported to a hospital in Pescara, Friday, Jan. 20, 2017. Three children were rescued from the avalanche-hit Rigopiano Hotel on Friday. and transported to Pescara hospital. One of the rescued children brought to Pescara was Ludovica Parete, the daughter of Giampiero Parete, the man who escaped Wednesday's avalanche and first sounded the alarm by calling his boss. (Claudio Lattanzio/ANSA via AP)

A woman gets assistance after being pulled out from the hotel that was hit by an avalanche on Wednesday, in Rigopiano, central Italy, Friday, Jan. 20, 2017. Rescue crews located more than eight people alive in the rubble of an avalanche-crushed hotel on Friday, an incredible discovery that boosted spirits two days after the massive snow slide buried around 30 people in the resort. (ANSA via AP)

Rescuers work at the avalanche-hit Rigopiano hotel, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico/The National Alpine Cliff and Cave Rescue Corps (CNSAS) via AP)

Rescuers work at the avalanche-hit Rigopiano hotel, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico/The National Alpine Cliff and Cave Rescue Corps (CNSAS) via AP)

Rescuers work at the avalanche-hit Rigopiano hotel, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico/The National Alpine Cliff and Cave Rescue Corps (CNSAS) via AP)

Rescuers work at the avalanche-hit Rigopiano hotel, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico/The National Alpine Cliff and Cave Rescue Corps (CNSAS) via AP)

Rescuers work at the avalanche-hit Rigopiano hotel, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico/The National Alpine Cliff and Cave Rescue Corps (CNSAS) via AP)

Rescuers work at the avalanche-hit Rigopiano hotel, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico/The National Alpine Cliff and Cave Rescue Corps (CNSAS) via AP)

Rescuers work at the avalanche-hit Rigopiano hotel, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico/The National Alpine Cliff and Cave Rescue Corps (CNSAS) via AP)

Rescuers work at the avalanche-hit Rigopiano hotel, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico/The National Alpine Cliff and Cave Rescue Corps (CNSAS) via AP)

Rescuers work at the avalanche-hit Rigopiano hotel, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico/The National Alpine Cliff and Cave Rescue Corps (CNSAS) via AP)

An Italian firefighter helicopter prepares to take off during rescue operations for an hotel crushed by an avalanche last Wednesday, in Penne, central Italy, early Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Simona Di Carlo, the aunt of Edoardo Di Carlo, one of three children pulled out from the avalanche-hit hotel Rigopiano, arrives at the hospital in Pescara, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. Nine-year-old Edoardo Di Carlo told his rescuers he had gone into the billiards room to play when he was trapped by the avalanche. In all three children had been together. Emergency crews pulled out four more survivors from the rubble of a hotel crushed by an avalanche and were searching Saturday for more as family members awaited word if their relatives were among the lucky ones to get out. (Claudio Lattanzio/ANSA via AP)

Rescuers work in the area of the avalanche-hit Rigopiano hotel, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico/The National Alpine Cliff and Cave Rescue Corps (CNSAS) via AP)

Rescuers work in the area of the avalanche-hit Rigopiano hotel, central Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico/The National Alpine Cliff and Cave Rescue Corps (CNSAS) via AP)

Rescuers work in the area of the avalanche-hit Rigopiano hotel, central Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico/The National Alpine Cliff and Cave Rescue Corps (CNSAS) via AP)

Asylum seekers from Gambia, Ivory Coast and Mali wear the Italian Red Cross uniform as they wait to take part as volunteers in the rescue operations, in Penne, central Italy, early Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Asylum seekers from Gambia, Ivory Coast and Mali, left, wear the Italian Red Cross uniform as they wait to take part as volunteers in the rescue operations, in Penne, central Italy, early Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Asylum seekers from Gambia, Ivory Coast and Mali, left, wear the Italian Red Cross uniform as they wait to take part as volunteers in the rescue operations, in Penne, central Italy, early Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as "angels." Among the 10 people pulled out alive was a plucky 6-year-old who just wanted her favorite cookies. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)